Blog - Page 24 of 73 - Adam Blumer

Want to Make Phone Calls for Free? Part 3

By Adam Blumer March 21, 2014 Gadgets I Use, Home Improvement, Reviews, Technology, Weekly Post 1 Comment

See Part 1 and Part 2. Last fall, I began a series of articles about my journey to “phone independence.” Basically, I found a way to make and receive free phone calls (yes, free) using an actual telephone and a free Google Voice account. This is possible through a gadget called the Obi 100 or Obi 110. This graphic pretty much says it all: If you are fuzzy on the details, please see Part 1 and Part 2 (listed above). I don’t plan to rehash everything here. Unfortunately, I’ve now hit a setback, and I wanted to be honest about it, since I agreed to document every step of my journey. This spring I was planning to port my landline phone number to Google Voice and take the next step. But then Obihai, the company that makes the whole phone-calls-through-Google-Voice thing possible, announced that Google plans as of May 15,…

Buy Your Way to the NYT Best-Seller List?

By Adam Blumer March 7, 2014 Blog, Current Events, Publishing, Weekly Post, Writing 3 Comments

When my first novel came out, I had no notions of being a best-selling author. My goal was simply to sell enough copies to make my publisher happy and ensure future contracts. An odd thought struck me. Hey, I know how to be a best-selling author. I just need to be rich enough. I could give tons of money to a friend, who could then buy up all my copies. Then my publisher could proclaim that I have an instant best seller! Does that idea sound fanciful? Not so fast. It appears that others have entertained the same idea. I recently saw an article in World magazine about Mark Driscoll, pastor of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church, who authored the book Real Marriage. According to the article’s author, Warren Cole Smith, Mars Hill Church paid a marketing company up to $210,000 to ensure Driscoll’s book made the New York Times best-seller list. How exactly the marketing…

Making Something from Nothing

By Adam Blumer February 21, 2014 Being a Caregiver, Christian Living, Inspiration, Introspection, Memories, Weekly Post, Works of God 8 Comments

Photo courtesy of George Hodan Someone recently asked me, “When was the last time you made something from nothing?” At first I was baffled. Based on my understanding, God is the only Being who has created something from nothing. Ex nihilo. Then I got to thinking. When was the last time I watched God produce something in my life I knew I was lacking? Memories came to me, and I decided to share them along with my answer to this question. When my father was diagnosed with brain cancer in January 2009, my parents moved near me so he could be close to our hospital for cancer care and so a son could be nearby. What I didn’t realize at the beginning was how I would be called on to serve as a caregiver in so many ways. I knew nothing about this role and didn’t know how best to help…

Write for My Blog or Work on My Novel?

By Adam Blumer February 14, 2014 Books, Drone, Novel Writing, Weekly Post, Writing No Comments

This is what the question has come to. I wish I could be Superman and do all of it—write for my blog and work on my next novel—but I simply can’t do both well. That’s just the simple truth. Not with my editing schedule to pay the bills. Working on my blog frankly means less time to work on my novel, and I’m committed to finishing novel #3 this year. So what’s gonna have to give? The blog’s gotta give. Going forward, I plan to write an article every other week instead of every week. I hope to continue writing insteresting content for fiction writers or lovers of Christian suspense or both. I’ve also recently updated the look of my website and recently programmed a store, showcasing some of my favorite books. Let me know what you think. How’s the novel coming? It’s coming. Just not as quickly as I would…